It’s been a rough week for the chipless and the chip-poor. If you follow the FPL community, you’ve seen all the epic double gameweek 32 teams lined up for this weekend. It’s going to be one hell of a gameweek, plenty of beers will be sipped and chugged and chucked, and many non-free hitters out there (like myself) are getting really damn nervous.
Luckily, it’s not all doom and gloom for those of us without Free Hit or Wildcard chips. If you haven’t started thinking about it until now, you may be in for a rough couple of weeks. Actually, let me rephrase: you are in for a rough couple of weeks. There’s no getting around that. Free hitting in GW32, Wildcarding in GW34, and Bench Boosting in GW35 is clearly the optimal chip strategy according to experienced FPL managers.
But! If you still have your Bench Boost chip, you should be able to avoid a giant rank fall in gameweek 32 or 35. Unfortunately, we have to choose. I personally think GW32 is ideal for Bench Boost and I’ll just be sitting back with a cocktail laughing at myself in GW35. If it’s just too late and you can’t field 15 playing players in GW32, you can just take the next four gameweeks (and four free transfers) to build up to a nice gameweek 35 Bench Boost squad.
FPL is already a game inside of a game, so let’s take it one step further and play a game in a game in a game. The object is simple: put as many ‘games’ on the pitch for gameweek 32 as you can.
We’ll use the Free Hit DGW32 strategy as an example. Most Free Hit teams in DGW32 will have eleven players who all play two games (plus bench fodder). That gives you twenty-two games on the field.
Now, let’s take a casual player’s team. He only has four DGW32 players who play two games; that’s four who play twice and eleven who play once. That means he will have nineteen games on the field (4×2=8+11=19). It’s nothing like the twenty-two games the Free Hitters’ have, but it’s something.
Now, let’s talk about a DGW32 Bench Boost team. Actually, we can just talk about mine! I’ve been planning to use Bench Boost in gameweek 32 since gameweek 27 when I made the epic and tragic mistake that is Ricardo Pereira. Anyways, since then I’ve built up fifteen playing players for DGW32, eight of which play two games. In total, that’s twenty-three games on the field. So, in the ‘game game,’ I’m one game ahead of the Free Hitters. I also fielded ten players in blank gameweek 31, will have at least ten for blank gameweek 33, and still have eight players playing twice in double gameweek 32; You can plan your way around the blanks and doubles without all of your chips.
The counter argument is that the ‘game game’ does not take into account player quality, form, fixtures, etc. The players on the Free Hit teams will be in better form than ours, have easier games, and will all play twice. I reiterate, the chip-poor are definitely at a disadvantage through gameweek 35. But if you keep this ‘game game’ concept in mind while making your next moves, you may be able to get your total amount of games on the pitch a little bit closer to theirs. Even if all of your players only play one game in DGW32, a Bench Boost will take you to fifteen. It seems insignificant, but we need to play defensive and do everything we can to avoid huge rank drops. We probably can’t beat the Free Hitters (who knows!?), but I think we can do a decent job of keeping up. You never know when your best differential is going to come through for you in a week when the big hitters flop. Maybe for me in double gameweek 32, that will be Salah (Salah is the best differential pick for DGW32, right? Come on, people…it can’t be long now.).
If you’re just now thinking about what to do, it might be a better idea to use your Bench Boost in gameweek 35. That’s the second major double gameweek, and it will give you the time and free transfers to build up your amount of playing players. If you do some serious research, you should be able to fill up your Bench Boost squad with form, nice fixtures, and hopefully lots of players who play twice in gameweek 35.
Think about if you planned this strategy from the beginning of the season. Imagine the possibilities. I think Bench Boost can easily be a more powerful chip than the Free Hit in this part of the season. If you did your homework and planned properly, you could potentially have fifteen players who all play twice in a single gameweek, giving you thirty games on the field. Who knows what the potential point ceiling would be on a double gameweek like that.
Good luck in double gameweek 32 managers, even to the Free Hitters about to destroy us all.
By Chris Kish
Twitter: @benchedcaptain
5 years, 29 days agoHi!
Interestingly, according to the lack of comments, nobody seems to care about the alternatives to Free Hit in DGW 32. Free hitting now seems to be the choice of the vast majority of active players. And there are some reasons I am happy not being part of that majority.
First, I can use my triple captain. What a time to use it...Man City play Fulham and Cardiff! So if you play the game in the game you have 6(!!!) Agüeros or Sterlings with amazing fixtures.
Second, Mo Salah is one of my diferentials. Isn't that crazy?! I haven't seen a single Free Hit squad with him in it. Generaly free hitters seem to oversee single GW options, which leads to my third and final point...
We all know that the dream Team of this GW will consist of DGW- and single GW players. Leicester - Bournemouth could easily be a 3-2, Arsenal play Newcastle at home, etc. I won't be surprised when the dream team will be 50/50 of DGW and single GW players. But if you free hit now it seems that you have no other choice than having 11 DGW players since you have the illusion to maximise your points haveing 22 games.
I also understand the many advantages you get through free hitting on DGW 32. But if you dont, there are many reasons not to hide behind a sofa cugging beers.